Ericsson is the only driver to do 20 races this year and not score a point, yet it looks like Sauber are keeping him on for another year, as he is driving in the next round of testing, a big hint that he is being retained.How he has survived this long is beyond me, seems like a nice fella, but does not seem up to the same level as the other 19 drivers.

If he was a Toro Rosso driver, he would have gone already I'm sure, but Saubers new owners seem intent on wasting many millions of dollars for some reason I can't see.

Best way for me to describe him, your playing COD at home on your xbox/ps4 offline, you think your unbeatable, then one day you make that decision to go online, and you end up with no kills and 100 deaths over and over again, suddenly you realise your a small fish in a big pond!

He just seems so out of his depth really and I wish it would come to an end so someone else could have their chance.

Ericsson is the only driver to do 20 races this year and not score a point, yet it looks like Sauber are keeping him on for another year, as he is driving in the next round of testing, a big hint that he is being retained.How he has survived this long is beyond me, seems like a nice fella, but does not seem up to the same level as the other 19 drivers.

If he was a Toro Rosso driver, he would have gone already I'm sure, but Saubers new owners seem intent on wasting many millions of dollars for some reason I can't see.

Best way for me to describe him, your playing COD at home on your xbox/ps4 offline, you think your unbeatable, then one day you make that decision to go online, and you end up with no kills and 100 deaths over and over again, suddenly you realise your a small fish in a big pond!

He just seems so out of his depth really and I wish it would come to an end so someone else could have their chance.

Anyone else agree?

Dave

You know his backers own Sauber don't you? Until that changes he isn't going anywhere.

Well, rumour is Ferrari are having a bit of a ding dong over trying to get Giovanazzi in the seat over Ericsson, and given the preference Vasseur seems to have for Ferrari (canning that Honda deal can't have come easily) and with the respectable job he has done thus far, I don't think it's a done deal who gets that seat. Ericsson as the third driver would be a solution that may well serve all parties well, ready to step in if either LeClerc or Giovanazzi don't cut the mustard.

I don't think you respect that he hasn't been far off Wehrlein's pace at all. He has caused his own retirement 3 times, yes but so has Sainz and Sainz has been responsible for 2 other drivers too. Ericsson and Wehrlein are 11 - 7 in qualifying in Wehrleins faivour if I am correct That isn't a big difference. And mid season, although Wehrlein had beaten him far more often at that stage, their average time gap was tiny. I think it could actually be possible that the average time gap could be in Ericsson’s favour as when Ericsson has beaten Wehrlein, it has often been by a bigger margin that the other way round. Pace wise, I think they are very similar. Wehrlein is certainly better overall, but there is a tiny gap between them performance wise. Ericsson just makes more mistakes. But several drives this season have made more costly mistakes than him.

Ericsson may not have got any points, but I think you are just looking at the results and not the races. Ericsson has been really close to getting points about as many times as Wehrlein, quite possibly more. He's just been more unlucky. In fact, as someone told me before, Ericson has only got points down to other drivers misfortune. But that is true with Wehrlein too. Out of the 2, Ericsson has been the closest to getting a point without retirements clearly helping out and that was when he finished 11th in mexico last year with only one car retiring. It happened to be Wehrlein but the incident involvend Ericsson, Wehrlein and Ericsson and it was just classed as a racing incident. Ericsson fell to last and managed to recover to 11th. IMO, a more impressive drive than any by Wehrlein. But it is true, he doesn't have many.

Ericsson also will have likely got a point or 2 in Spain this year if he had been on the same strategy as Wehrlein. He certainly wasn't as good as his team mate, but that strategy certainly helped Wehrlein. And in Baku, Ericsson was infact leading Wehilein. Wehrlein attempted to pass Ericsson but did a clumsy job of it causing some damage to Ericsson's car. The team said they would swap positions if Wehrlein didn't pull away. The gap hardly increased and the position didn't get returned. The reason will have been because Vandoorn had closed in on Ericsson and it will have been too risky to swap back. But that was certainly a point Ericsson was more deserving of.Also, Ericsson was incerdibly unlucky in mexico this year. He looked to be doing a repeat of his good performance last year. He was running in 9th and then his engine blew up. Sauber seem to do reasonably at this track and I think it could be related to the thin air and their setup. But he got unlucky and a 10th place may just about have been possible. He's been on top of Wehrlein all weekend.

I don't want to say Ericsson is good, but he's under rated. He started off badly. Over 2014 and the start of 2015, I thought he was about the worst on the grid. But in the 2nd half of 2015, he looked to start getting the better of Nasr and that continued in 2016 although the points don't show it. But I'm sure most will agree Ericsson looked better than Nasr once he'd been with him for a while. Ericsson has made progress and he now does look to be far better than he was. He's just been unfortunate not to score points. But he's been really close quite a few times which I don't think enough people realise and it is mainly bad luck that hasn't allowed him to get them on these fer occasions. As a pay driver, he can only benefit the team. In that aspect, Unfortunately, I can see him being what Sauber need more than Wehrlein and I don't think he's bad enough to not deserve to be in the sport anyway. But hopefully they will keep Wehrlein or he will find another seat.

Last edited by TheGiantHogweed on Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well, rumour is Ferrari are having a bit of a ding dong over trying to get Giovanazzi in the seat over Ericsson, and given the preference Vasseur seems to have for Ferrari (canning that Honda deal can't have come easily) and with the respectable job he has done thus far, I don't think it's a done deal who gets that seat. Ericsson as the third driver would be a solution that may well serve all parties well, ready to step in if either LeClerc or Giovanazzi don't cut the mustard.

I agree, that would be a solution! But like I said, Sauber seem to want to keep him in there just because he is from Sweden and they have dollars to burn...

@TheGiantHogweedI understand what your saying, but if he had gone to McLaren for example, can you see him beating Alonso or Vandoorne?OR Perez in the FI? Would he have done a better job than Bottas?After everything you have written, I think we can both agree on an answer to these questions!

Well, rumour is Ferrari are having a bit of a ding dong over trying to get Giovanazzi in the seat over Ericsson, and given the preference Vasseur seems to have for Ferrari (canning that Honda deal can't have come easily) and with the respectable job he has done thus far, I don't think it's a done deal who gets that seat. Ericsson as the third driver would be a solution that may well serve all parties well, ready to step in if either LeClerc or Giovanazzi don't cut the mustard.

I agree, that would be a solution! But like I said, Sauber seem to want to keep him in there just because he is from Sweden and they have dollars to burn...

@TheGiantHogweedI understand what your saying, but if he had gone to McLaren for example, can you see him beating Alonso or Vandoorne?OR Perez in the FI? Would he have done a better job than Bottas?After everything you have written, I think we can both agree on an answer to these questions!

Dave

I don't see him doing better than any of those you mention no. But I don't rate him below the other 19... Before the Toro Rosso team got changed, I think I would have rated Ericsson 15th or 16th or there abouts. I think that on the whole, Stroll, Kvyat have been worse. And I would possibly put him about level with Magnussen now if I'm honest. He's not the worst out there and has improved a lot since he started his career. His money is a bonus. As far as pay drivers go, he is one of the better ones I think.

I don't think you respect that he hasn't been far off Wehrlein's pace at all. He has caused his own retirement 3 times, yes but so has Sainz and Sainz has been responsible for 2 other drivers too. Ericsson and Wehrlein are 11 - 7 in qualifying in Wehrleins faivour if I am correct That isn't a big difference. And mid season, although Wehrlein had beaten him far more often at that stage, their average time gap was tiny. I think it could actually be possible that the average time gap could be in Ericsson’s favour as when Ericsson has beaten Wehrlein, it has often been by a bigger margin that the other way round. Pace wise, I think they are very similar. Wehrlein is certainly better overall, but there is a tiny gap between them performance wise. Ericsson just makes more mistakes. But several drives this season have made more costly mistakes than him.

Ericsson may not have got any points, but I think you are just looking at the results and not the races. Ericsson has been really close to getting points about as many times as Wehrlein, quite possibly more. He's just been more unlucky. In fact, as someone told me before, Ericson has only got points down to other drivers misfortune. But that is true with Wehrlein too. Out of the 2, Ericsson has been the closest to getting a point without retirements clearly helping out and that was when he finished 11th in mexico last year with only one car retiring. It happened to be Wehrlein but the incident involvend Ericsson, Wehrlein and Ericsson and it was just classed as a racing incident. Ericsson fell to last and managed to recover to 11th. IMO, a more impressive drive than any by Wehrlein. But it is true, he doesn't have many.

Ericsson also will have likely got a point or 2 in Spain this year if he had been on the same strategy as Wehrlein. He certainly wasn't as good as his team mate, but that strategy certainly helped Wehrlein. And in Baku, Ericsson was infact leading Wehilein. Wehrlein attempted to pass Ericsson but did a clumsy job of it causing some damage to Ericsson's car. The team said they would swap positions if Wehrlein didn't pull away. The gap hardly increased and the position didn't get returned. The reason will have been because Vandoorn had closed in on Ericsson and it will have been too risky to swap back. But that was certainly a point Ericsson was more deserving of.Also, Ericsson was incerdibly unlucky in mexico this year. He looked to be doing a repeat of his good performance last year. He was running in 9th and then his engine blew up. Sauber seem to do reasonably at this track and I think it could be related to the thin air and their setup. But he got unlucky and a 10th place may just about have been possible. He's been on top of Wehrlein all weekend.

I don't want to say Ericsson is good, but he's under rated. He started off badly. Over 2014 and the start of 2015, I thought he was about the worst on the grid. But in the 2nd half of 2015, he looked to start getting the better of Nazr and that continued in 2016 although the points don't show it. But I'm sure most will agree Ericsson looked better than Nazr once he'd been with him for a while. Ericsson has made progress and he now does look to be far better than he was. He's just been unfortunate not to score points. But he's been really close quite a few times which I don't think enough people realise and it is mainly bad luck that hasn't allowed him to get them on these fer occasions. As a pay driver, he can only benefit the team. In that aspect, Unfortuantly, I can see him being what Sauber need more than Wehrlein and I don't think he's bad enough to not deserve to be in the sport anyway. But hopefully they will keep Wehrlein or he will find another seat.

Yeah agree with most of this.

I think he is a driver that has improved since the middle of the 2014 season. He was getting thrashed by Kobayashi, then Loterrer showed up at Spa to do one race and outqualified Ericsson. By then I thought he was the absolute worst driver ever. But towards the end of that season Ericsson started beating Kobayashi. I know some people are saying it was due to him running a better car than Kobi, but I can't find any real evidence of that. Then last year I thought he beat Nasr soundly, and this past season he gave Wherlein a real run for it.

I rate him better than Stroll, Palmer and possibly the current Raikonneni, so yeah...maybe about 18th on the grid but I think he has what it takes to be in F1 imo.